An RS232 compliant communication port is readily available on every computer for establishing a communication link to another unit. To make the communication link, the RS232 communication port should be wired to another RS232 compliant communication port. For a wired connection in some cases, however, the communicating units are located far apart and inaccessible. One such case is shown in FIG. 1 where a mobile user needs to establish a communication link from the RS232 communication port of his palm top computer to an inaccessible cellular base station located high above on a pole. Such a need often arises in connection with servicing or retrieving data from the remote base station.
To solve the problem of inaccessibility, a wireless communication link very often is substituted for the wired connection. The wireless communication link is made directly from the RS232 port through a transceiver transmitting and receiving at infrared (IR) frequency or radio frequency (RF). However, the limited number of input and output lines at an RS232 communication port does not readily provide any control over a transceiver operation. The RS232 communication port signaling is based on a Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) signaling where the time for transmitting and receiving are not predetermined. Since every receiver has a limited response time, some of the initial data bits are lost due to the response time when an asynchronous signal is received at the receiver. This results in highly unreliable wireless communication. A possible solution is to control the transceiver module externally. However, with this solution, standard RS232 communication ports would be required to have additional hardware or software that is not typically available on host computers.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and an apparatus for independently controlling a transceiver module for a wireless communication in an environment with RS232 data communication signaling format.